On 19 December 2001, the 'red-Green' coalition government passed a decree which will offer employment permits to domestic workers from Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Permits will be issued with a duration of one to three years and applications will be accepted until 31
On 19 November 2001, at the biannual congress of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (Bundesvereinigung der deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände, BDA), representatives of affiliated employers' associations debated new strategies to make pay contingent on companies' performance. The
On 7 November 2001, the German government approved a draft Law on Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities (Gleichstellungsgesetz für behinderte Menschen), which is due to come into force on 1 May 2002. This law completes a series of reforms and political initiatives by the 'red-green'
On 8 November 2001, the German pilots' trade union (Vereinigung Cockpit, VC) and LTU, Germany's second-largest charter air carrier, concluded a special collective agreement aimed at saving the airline from bankruptcy. According to the pilots' own estimates, the agreement [1] will save the airline
On 13 September 2001, some 100 employees from private radio stations, internet companies, and the film industry met in Frankfurt to share their experience of a trade union project called connexx.av [1], sponsored by the recently established Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinigte
After months of negotiations, the social partners in the chemicals and metalworking industries have finally concluded new collective agreements on supplementary pension schemes. Both agreements, which were concluded in September 2001, are based on a pension reform law which was approved by the
At its national congress [1], held from 30 September to 5 October 2001 in Bonn, the Building, Agricultural and Environment Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt, IG BAU) took important steps towards changing its internal structure substantially. The depth and magnitude of this change is
Late at night on 19 June 2001, representatives of Südwestmetall, the metalworking employers' association for the district of Baden Württemberg, and the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union concluded a collective agreement on further and continuing training, following more than three months of
On 22 June 2001, the lower house of the German parliament (Bundestag) passed legislation [1] to reform the Works Constitution [2] Act (Bertriebsverfassungsgesetz, BetrVG) by a majority of 336 votes to 208. The reform of the law, which determines the legal framework for co-determination at the level
On 8 June 2001, an arbitration committee bringing together the German air carrier Lufthansa AG and the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots' trade union, chaired by the former minister for foreign affairs, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, drew up a joint dispute resolution agreement [1] (Schlichtungsvereinbarung)